fewness · noun, common masculine singular absolute
while
מְעַ֣טme.'At
H4592
a little or few (often adverbial or compar.) · noun, common masculine singular construct
Lebanon
לְבָנ֖וֹןle.va.Non
H3844
Lebanon · proper noun, a place name
turned
וְשָׁ֥בve.Shav
H7725
to turn back (hence · conjunction + verb, qal sequential perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
field
לַכַּרְמֶ֑לla.kar.Mel
H3759
a planted field (garden · preposition with the article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
field
וְהַכַּרְמֶ֖לve.ha.kar.Mel
H3759
a planted field (garden · conjunction + definite article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
esteemed
יֵחָשֵֽׁבye.cha.Shev
H2803
properly · verb, niphal imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
forest
לַיַּ֥עַרlai.Ya.'ar
H3293
a copse of bushes · preposition with the article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Isaiah 32:15 Until the spirit be poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness be a fruitful field, and the fruitful field be counted for a forest.
Matthew 19:30 But many that are first shall be last; and the last shall be first.
Hebrews 10:37 For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry.
Psalms 84:6 Who passing through the valley of Baca make it a well; the rain also filleth the pools.
Psalms 107:33 He turneth rivers into a wilderness, and the watersprings into dry ground;
Psalms 107:35 He turneth the wilderness into a standing water, and dry ground into watersprings.
Isaiah 5:6 And I will lay it waste: it shall not be pruned, nor digged; but there shall come up briers and thorns: I will also command the clouds that…
Isaiah 35:1-2 The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Isaiah 29:17–end
Those that thought to hide their counsels from the Lord were said to turn things upside down (Isa 29:16), and they intended to do it unknown to God; but God here tells them that he will turn things upside down his way; and let us see whose word shall stand, his or theirs. They disbelieve Providence: "Wait awhile," says God, "and you shall be convinced by ocular demonstration that there is a God who governs the world, and that he governs it and orders all the changes that are in it for the good of his church." The wonderful revolution here foretold may refer primarily to the happy settlement of the affairs of Judah and Jerusalem after the defeat of Sennacherib's attempt, and the repose which…
turned--as contrasted with your "turnings of things upside down" (Isa 29:16), there shall be other and better turnings or revolutions; the outpouring of the Spirit in the latter days (Isa 32:15); first on the Jews; which shall be followed by their national restoration (see on Isa 29:2; Zac 12:10) then on the Gentiles (Joe 2:28).
fruitful field--literally, "a Carmel" (see on Isa 10:18). The moral change in the Jewish nation shall be as great as if the wooded Lebanon were to become a fruitful field, and vice versa. Compare Mat 11:12, Greek: "the kingdom of heaven forces itself," as it were, on man's acceptance; instead of men having to seek Messiah, as they had John, in a desert, He presents…
Is it not yet a very little while,.... In a short space of time, in a few years, what follows would come to pass; when there would be a strange change and alteration made in the world, and by which it would appear, that the Lord not only knows, but foreknows, all things:
and Lebanon shall be turned into a fruitful field; the forest of Lebanon should be as Carmel. The meaning is, that the Gentile world, which was like a forest uncultivated, and full of unfruitful trees, to which wicked men may be compared, should through the preaching of the Gospel be manured, become God's husbandry, and be like a fruitful field, abounding with people and churches, fruitful in grace and good works:
and the…
The Church Fathers
Note that [Paul] taught Greeks in Jerusalem, and Jews in Damascus which is a Gentile city, even though this should signify that Gentiles were to be included in the city of God and Jews were to fall into the faithlessness of the Gentiles, in accordance with what Isaiah said, "Lebanon shall be changed into Carmel, and Carmel shall be regarded as a wasteland."
(Verse 17). Will not Lebanon soon become a fruitful field, and the fruitful field be regarded as a forest? Let the Jews and friends of simple history answer, those who seek fruit not on the tree, but only leaves and the shadow of words, which quickly wither and perish. How is it that in the coming of the Lord Savior (because from the time of Isaiah until the incarnation of the flesh, for the comparison of eternity, it is a short and small span of time) the mountain of Lebanon turned towards Phoenicia and moved to Mount Carmel? It is called in Hebrew Chermel, and it is near the border of Palestine and Phoenicia, overlooking Ptolemais: although another mountain in the holy scriptures is called Mount Carmel, where there was Nabal the Carmelite (1 Samuel 25), a foolish and wicked man, who had a wife named Abigail, who married David after her husband died; while her husband was alive, she could not marry David, so as not to be called an adulteress if she were associated with another man; and how is Carmel considered a desirable place and unfruitful trees? But since they are unable to express it, let them listen to Libanus, which means "whiteness", referring to the people of the Gentiles who, having been washed in the Lord and cleansed of their former filth, ascend as a whole world. They rely on the person of the Church as the bride of the Savior, and it is said about them in the Song of Songs: Who is this who comes up, shining white, leaning on her beloved? (Cant. VIII. 5) And let this people be transferred to Carmel, which means the knowledge of circumcision, so that they may recognize the mysteries of spiritual and true circumcision, and be in the place of the former people of the Jews. As for those who refuse to accept Christ, let them be considered as thorns and barren trees, which cannot praise the Lord with fruitful trees.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Forest — Heb. ya’ar, meaning a dense wood, from its luxuriance. Thus all the great primeval forests of Syria (Eccl. 2:6; Isa. 44:14; Jer. 5:6; Micah 5:8). The most extensive was the trans-Jordanic forest of…
Sennacherib — Sin (the god) sends many brothers, son of Sargon, whom he succeeded on the throne of Assyria (B.C. 705), in the 23rd year of Hezekiah. “Like the Persian Xerxes, he was weak and vainglorious, cowardly…
Forests · Illustrative: (A fruitful field turned into,) of the Jews rejected by God — Illustrative: (A fruitful field turned into,) of the Jews rejected by God
Lebanon · FIGURATIVE — FIGURATIVE
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
Is it not yet a little while? The Lord now declares that he will make those wicked men to know who they are; as if he had said, "You are now asleep in your pride, but I shall speedily awake you." Men indulge themselves, till they feel the powerful hand of God; and therefore the Prophet threatens that the judgment of God will overtake such profound indifference.
And Lebanon shall be turned into Carmel. [278] Under the names "Lebanon" and "Carmel" he intended to express a renovation of the world and a change of affairs. But as to the object of the allusion, commentators differ widely from each other. As Mount "Lebanon" was clothed with trees and forests, and "Carmel" had fruitful and fertile…
But the prophet's God, whose omniscience, creative glory, and perfect wisdom they so basely mistook and ignored, would very shortly turn the present state of the world upside down, and make Himself a congregation out of the poor and wretched, whilst He would entirely destroy this proud ungodly nation. "Is it not yet a very little, and Lebanon is turned into a fruitful field, and the fruitful field esteemed as a forest? And in that day the deaf hear scripture words, and the eyes of the blind will see out of obscurity and out of darkness. And the joy of the humble increases in Jehovah, and the poor among men will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel. For tyrants are gone, and it is over with scof…
The forests of Lebanon are usually an image of luxuriant growth (see 2:13; 14:8), but here they represent desolation.
Rashi on Isaiah 29:17
Indeed, in a short time In a few days, it is easy in My eyes, if you return to Me
the Lebanon shall be turned The Lebanon, which is a forest of trees, shall be turned into a ‘karmel,’ a settlement of fields and vineyards.
and the fruitful field shall be regarded as a forest Jonathan renders: It shall be populated by large cities. And the Aggadah in Gen. Rabbah (24:1) explains it as forests of people, a settlement of cities and people, crowded and full, like this forest, which is full of trees.
